Harold Charles Francis HARVEY (1874 - 1941)Home from the Fields
Oil on canvas. Signed and dated ’07.
The only principal member of the Newlyn School to have been born in Cornwall, Harvey painted scenes of everyday life with an intimate, personal knowledge of the area and its people. He was taught firstly by the Penzance-based artist Norman Garstin and then studied in Paris at l’Atelier Julian. He was influenced by the French rural realism of Jules Bastien-Lepage and, on his return from Paris, recorded the day-to-day lives of working Cornish people, painting out of doors, in the fields and country lanes, by the harbours and on the beaches near his home. Harvey exhibited at the major galleries throughout Britain, including 55 works at The Royal Academy. A modest, retiring person, he was popular among his fellow artists and is regarded today as one of the most important painters of the Newlyn School. 12” x 16” (30.5 cm x 40.6 cm)